How to Work with Community Folders

To become part of a community folder, you will have to be given access to that folder. This is done through email. So first you need the person to send you an email, which you will then open, and, following these steps, you will be able to take part in the work which will be going on in that folder

Accessing the community folder and adding it to your Drive

1) Open the email, and open the folder

2) This will take you to the folder you’ve been invited to. You can change how you view it (grid or list) by clicking in the top right corner

3) Add it to your Drive by clicking the “Add to Drive” button

4) Once you have done that, you will be able to open it in (your) Drive

Organizing your files in Google Drive

1) You can do a variety of different things with files and folders in your drive. Including how you view (grid or list) and organize them.(alphabetical, last modified, last modified by me, and last opened)

2) In addition, you can also add a star, and view only those items which you have added a star to, in order to make finding those more important items easier

3) You can also color code items.

4) If you want to move items throughout your drive, you have a couple options on how to do so. You can highlight it and go to the “Move to…” option in your drop-down list.

5) You will then have a drop-down list of folders from which to choose. Select it and click “Move”

6) You can also drag and drop an item from your list in the main view into the folder you desire. The item can be dropped into the folder on the left column of the Drive screen, or you can scroll through your main drive list to find the appropriate folder and drop it off there.

Uploading files to your Google Drive

1) Click the “NEW” button in the top left corner, and you can upload a single file, a group of files, or an entire folder.

2) To upload a file, find it wherever it is located on your computer, select it, and click open (You can select and upload multiple files at once)

Cleanup

1) If you find your drive is too full, and you need to free up space (Not an issue with those of you using Google Apps for Education, as those using an apu.edu domain with Google now have unlimited storage) Or if you are done with a file and don’t want it anymore, or you feel your Drive is simply getting too cluttered, you can highlight the object and either hit the “Delete” button on your computer, or go up to the little trash can at the top of the drive and click “Remove” and your item will go to your trash, where it will remain indefinitely, until you either restore the file, or delete it manually.